What are the guidelines for using the Cook and Strahl Lab Tissue Culture Room? – How Lab Workers Accomplish Lab Management Tasks in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics

Cook and Strahl Lab Citizenship in the Tissue Culture Room

The joint Tissue Culture (TC) Room, GMB Room 3055, is shared by the Meissner, Cook and Strahl labs. Good citizenship is imperative there because of the demand for use of the room, its limited space, and the need for good sterile technique. Guidelines for using TC include:

Sign up in advance on the whiteboard found in the Cook lab.
Stay out of the Meissner hood, incubator, fridge, equipment, and red hazardous waste canister. The Meissner hood is the Sterilguard Three Advance hood to the east of the room. Meissner lab shelves, fridge, and incubator are to the right of this hood.
The other two hoods along the north wall belong to the Cook Lab and the department. The Cook and Strahl labs each has its own fridge, freezer, and incubator(s). Be sure to use the equipment only of your respective lab. The items on top of each fridge belong to the lab that owns it. Everyone should use his or her own gloves and pipet tips. The well-labeled shelves at the far end of the room are divided equally between the Cook and Strahl labs.

The Cook Lab is responsible for purchasing the CO₂ . Do not adjust the pressure on the CO₂ tanks.
The Strahl Lab buys the orange biohazard bags for both labs, but if you see that an order for orange bags needs to be placed, please write it on your individual lab’s ordering sheet.
Both labs should participate in the disposal of the hazardous waste, although Cook Lab undergraduates are also specifically assigned to help with this task. Included are the large red canister to the right of the Cook Lab hood, the orange bags under the hood, and the small orange bags utilized for pipet disposal. When the hazardous waste bags begin to get full, they must be changed because overfilled bags are difficult to autoclave.
When the plastic bottles are full of Pasteur pipets, cap them loosely, put autoclave tape on them, and place them in the secondary container in the back of GMB Room 3063 for autoclaving.

The vacuum trap under each hood needs to be changed once it begins to get full with liquid waste. This is done by first pouring in the flask enough bleach for a 10 percent mixture, letting it sit for at least 20 minutes, and then washing the waste down the sink with plenty of running water. All users of TC should do this when the flasks are full. Additionally, before reconnecting a flask to the vacuum, pour enough bleach in to cover the bottom of the flask.
If the water in the water bath needs to be replenished, please do this. Everyone should monitor this water level, as well as the clarity of the water. A Cook Lab undergraduate cleans the TC water bath every two weeks. If the water bath is unusually dirty, please note this on his or her whiteboard in the Cook Lab. Also, take the initiative to change the water, if necessary, between the scheduled cleanings.
As of February 2018, the pipetmen used in the Cook Lab and departmental hoods belong to the Cook lab. Use them carefully. Never adjust the volume past the maximum.
Please do not make a mess in the hoods or the room in general. Make sure to get your pipets and tips into the appropriate waste container, not on the floor. In short, be a model lab citizen in TC. Thank you.